There are people who headline vaudeville acts. There are people who hang out with puppeteers. There are people who can pull off bear suits. There are talented mash-up artists. Rarely are all these attributes found in one individual. Enter Kid Koala.

The Canadian-based artist (who went to school in the Washington, DC-suburbs!) put on a great show at U Street Music Hall on 11/24 despite the potential difficulties of a Thanksgiving weekend and an early set time (8:30! Not gonna lie, as a devoted in-bed-by-midnighter I was not displeased). Kid Koala’s tracks are amaaaaazing, combining ALL types of music and unexpected but artistic sounds ranging from old commercials to cartoon jingles. His set-up is also really neat. He has two monitors behind his booth that
allows the audience to see a close-up of his hands as he mixes/mashes/scratches (obviously I’m not an expert on the lingo here) his records.

The actual spectacle Kid Koala puts on is also something to write home about. Not only is he a charismatic guy, giving shout-outs to the crowd, his daughter, and his sponsors as well as explaining a bit about each track he plays and the reason why he sports and will sport a koala suit for 100 consecutive shows (he lost a bet), but he also makes sure his audience remains entertained. For this particular vaudeville-themed show, he had three dancers parading about with an impressive arrange of props, including but not limited to feathers, man-sized USA maps, paper planes (thrown to the audience), and a gramophone.

Other concert-time activities included a limbo competition and a kazoo-off. As if that wasn’t enough, Kid Koala also offered his fans the chance to enter a contest to win a personal pizza party, DJ’ed by Kid Koala himself, for 16 friends – and he specified there would be no Dominoes-ordering. Instead [and I quote as accurately as possible] “we’ll set you up with pizza that has truffle oil and such.” Obviously this man knows what’s up in terms of good entertainment, company, music, and food. He’s definitely a man worth seeing.